Today is the day when Casus Belli Musica and Beverina release Starthrone, the new album by the Russian solo music project Nebula Orionis, and to help spread the word we’re featuring a full stream of the recording.

The album is recommended for fans of Midnight Odyssey, Mesarthim, and Ison. It is dedicated to explorers of the universe, and in its own sounds it casts the listener’s mind out into the far reaches of the cosmos, guiding us on our way in an imagined exploration that’s full of mystery and wonder, and also the exposure to compulsive physical power.

To chart our path forward into the unknown, the project’s sole creator M42 weaves together a web of contrasting sonic ingredients.

Those include the kind of ethereal, pinging keyboard reverberations that might bring the music of Lustre to mind, which in themselves create a sense of mystery and mystic vision. The effect can become hypnotic, creating dreamlike spells, augmented by the high, drifting, mist-like swirl of synthesized starshine, which at times also sounds like a celestial choir, by the alluring ripple of piano keys, and by the lush, majestic, cascading sound of symphonic strings.

On the other hand, Starthrone is, at the same time, as heavy as a rushing comet as it spins those wondrously gleaming ice trails behind it. A deep low-end resonance courses through the music thanks to the deep, vibrant pulse of the bass and the hard-slugging potency of the drumwork, not to mention the jagged abrasion of the riffs.

And while drift, shimmer, and darting flashes characterize the high-flying melodies, creating panoramas of unearthly grandeur, the rhythms are earthy and body-moving. The music is still heavy metal — it rocks so hard (in both vibrant and solemn gaits), and with so much weight, that you’ll find your head moving reflexively. And the deeper drives in the music (which become thunderous at times) also add darker shades to the music’s moods, creating moments of gloom, isolation, and even cold hostility.

The album is almost entirely instrumental, with the sparsely used vocals consisting entirely of spoken words. Of course, that puts even greater weight on the music to keep us on course through this journey without losing our way (and drifting away). But Starthrone surmounts that challenge, not only because of the mesmerizing effect of the beautiful melodies, but also through the ebb and flow of its energies, the changing moods, and the dynamic variance of the rhythms and drum patterns. And in a wise choice, the album is relatively brief — and seems to pass by even more quickly than the sum total of its 30 minutes.

At the end, the closing track “Exile”, in which the rhythms fall completely away, seems to send us gliding into a dream of space, endless and vast, and it becomes a beautiful finale indeed.

We hope you enjoy Starthrone as much as we have. It’s available now through the links below, both digitally and in a 6-panel digipak edition..